Milwaukee Art Museum brise soleil to close for repairs

For the first time in a decade, one of the hundreds of parts that make up the sunshade atop the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Burke Brise Soleil, will need to be fixed.

On Tuesday, a 5-foot, 1,200-pound cyclinder will be lifted out of the spine of the brise soleil and removed for repairs. A large crane will arrive on-site that day. The museum will remain open but parking on Art Museum Drive will be restricted.

The hydraulic cylinder is one of 22 that are used to raise the 747-sized wings up and over the museum's glassy reception hall. The malfunction was identified in July during a thorough, 10-year check up of the sunshade, which is essentially a large, unique-in-the-world machine positioned on top of the building.

Since that discovery, the museum has not left the signature wings open for any length of time, though it has been doing regular "flaps" (a full rising and immediate lowering) during the day, weather permitting. After the faulty cylinder is removed, the museum will leave the brise soleil closed until it is repaired and replaced. The museum hopes the wings will be working again by Labor Day, on Sept. 5.

The museum will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the expansion project with several events in September, including the "Gala of the Decade" on Sept. 10, a posh and invitation-only fete that will be attended by many of the trustees, donors, architects, museum officials and civic leaders who were involved in making the project possible. Santiago Calatrava is expected to attend.